A Magical Night

I know this is starting to sound cliche, but man it’s great to be a Boston fan! Jon Lester set the tone early, completely shutting down the O’s through five. And that’s when the Sox started swinging the big bats. An intentional walk to Manny in the fifth to load the bases, was all the motivation Mike Lowell needed to clear the bases with his second grand slam of the season. How frigging sweet that must feel, knowing they purposely gave the hitter in front of you a free base, because they thought they could surely get you out. So you calmly hit the ball out of the park, FU, thanks for playing.

It would be all the offense the Sox would need, but that didn’t stop Youk and JD Drew from each hitting 2-run shots later in the game. Oddly, it was the tenth home run of the season for Lowell, The Maniacal Beard, and Drew. And just how hot is JD Drew right now? According to CBS Sportsline, pretty frigging hot:

Drew is 18-for-36 with six homers and 15 RBI since the designated hitter has been sidelined with a wrist injury, raising his batting average from .282 to .324. He also has five doubles, a triple, 15 runs and 10 walks in that span.

Hard to believe the Sox are two-and-a-half games in front of the fading Rays, and 7+ games in front of the rest of the AL East without the services of Big Papi and Dice-K.

And all that was just the opening act. The Celtics took the court in LA, leading the NBA Finals two games to one. For the first half of the game, they looked like a bunch of guys playing in an over-50 league in Cambridge, falling behind by as many as 24 points. But we’re talking about the Boston Celtics, winners of 16 NBA Championships. For those of you too young to remember, there is some serious history behind the green-and-white uniforms. And in the third quarter, it all turned around. Boston locked down on the defensive end of the court and started making shots. By the end of the third quarter, the Lakers were clinging to a two point lead.

When asked how the Celtics got back into it, a befuddled Phil Jackson replied; “I don’t know, how did they get back into it?” In the fourth, the Celtics maintained defensive pressure, and with about ten minutes left, took their first lead of the game. When the dust settled, the Celtics moved one step closer to banner number 17, while Kobe Bryant could only wonder if maybe it really was Shaq that led the Lakers to their championships. And somewhere, there will be a newspaper with pictures of Laker-fan Jack Nicholson and Kobe Bryant with the headline “You can’t handle the Truth!”

And now, after all of that feel-good Boston sports magic on a Thursday, we find ourselves looking at a 15-game stretch of interleague atrocities. Liquor stores beware.